Secondary Level Teaching

TanD

HI guys

Wondering if someone could shed some light on this for me. I'm wanting to get be a teacher, I'm 28 so would be entering as a mature student. I can't do this full time though but I don't have a degree at all so would be starting from scratch. I want to teach secondary level.

Anyway information would be great.

Thanks

ytareh

As a teacher of twenty years experience Id urge you to think long and hard .You wont be able to retire till God knows when , minimum 70 possibly heading for 80 years old.You can see yourself in a classroom full of kids who dont want to be there (to put it very mildly) at that age?
Theyve just increased 'basic' course from one year to two .Its now considered a Masters (yet theyve scrapped the Masters extra salary allowance) .There are NO jobs .You will have to go to England where conditions are even worse .
Have you the funds for several years in college and then perhaps up to a decade of very casual work in Ireland?

OK I see youre starting from scratch so its a four year B Ed. degree course.Do you know what subjects youre interested in teaching .The days of 'falling into' teaching as a 'parachute' career are LOOOOOOOONG gone .Think long and hard .there are a few job areas that are on the up in Ireland today .Try get into that and save for retirement .They'll still be CUTTING public service wages until the final months before the next crash...

rainbowtrout

TanD wrote: »

HI guys

Wondering if someone could shed some light on this for me. I'm wanting to get be a teacher, I'm 28 so would be entering as a mature student. I can't do this full time though but I don't have a degree at all so would be starting from scratch. I want to teach secondary level.

Anyway information would be great.

Thanks

The shortest route would be to do a specific teacher training degree which is four years. Teacher training is part of the degree. You haven't mentioned what subjects you would like to teach.

An alternative to that is to get a degree, preferably one that is on the Teaching Council list of degrees recognised for teaching purposes. That will take 3-4 years at least. After that you have to apply for the PDE which is now a 2 year course.

You said that you can only do this part time. Well if you can only do the degree part time it's going to take you longer to finish the degree and also vastly reduce your options on what kind of degree you can take as most degree courses in Ireland are full time. I would suspect that a part time degree will take you at least 6 years and then 2 years for the PDE on top of it.

As the other post above said, opportunities in teaching are few and far between and that is not likely to change for the foreseeable future. It might be wise to embark on that degree with a few to gaining a higher qualification but perhaps that would give you other options besides teaching and when you are finished the degree you can see how you feel about teaching then.

TanD

Thank you both for the replies I really appreciate your input.

gubbie

I know it's not the nicest thing to hear, to stay away from a job that you think would be a good option for you, but the posters above are correct. It's tough.

Right now I'm in school. 5 O'Clock on a Sunday. I'm planning my lessons for tomorrow. I've been here since midday. I normally work 12 hour days. I don't think anyone could have ever told me how tired, how abused and how overworked I'd have felt. And poor! I'd have thought "Teaching? Really? No, you must be mistaken, sure they only work from 9-4 and they have all those amazing holidays". I worked in the private sector before this for a science company. It was simple in comparison.

whiteandlight

gubbie wrote: »

I know it's not the nicest thing to hear, to stay away from a job that you think would be a good option for you, but the posters above are correct. It's tough.

Right now I'm in school. 5 O'Clock on a Sunday. I'm planning my lessons for tomorrow. I've been here since midday. I normally work 12 hour days. I don't think anyone could have ever told me how tired, how abused and how overworked I'd have felt. And poor! I'd have thought "Teaching? Really? No, you must be mistaken, sure they only work from 9-4 and they have all those amazing holidays". I worked in the private sector before this for a science company. It was simple in comparison.

I'm at home but like you I've been working for the last few hours preparing for the week ahead. The reality is that the preparation time in the "visible" timetable really isn't sufficient leaving a lot of work to be done outside those hours.

gammy_knees

Are you willing to travel abroad to get work?

Heydeldel

gammy_knees wrote: »

Are you willing to travel abroad to get work?

Good point by gammy_knees. Just have a look at some of the education job sites. One in particular only seems to advertise jobs based in the UK. If you train here the reality is that you'll be training to work abroad.

I'm 28 and have been qualified for two years. I'm a bit sickened I spent so much money on teacher training only to get so little in return. I am unequivocally financially ( and career wise) the worst off of all my friends. Some of my peers are planning to buy houses while I'm scrapping around for a few hours teaching. It's very disheartening.

I know I sound a bit bitter, heh, I am.

I'm actively looking for non -teaching jobs. I need to earn a living!

That's my grumpy two cents.

Hopefully by the time you've trained up more jobs will be available.

TanD

Thanks everyone for your opinions - I must say it is very disheartening but to be honest I would rather be told the truth now than do all the hard work only to not be a teacher at the end of the day.